As is known, safe and efficient exchange of information between entities involved in Air Traffic Management (ATM) is becoming more and more important with the evolution of aeronautical communications procedures and technologies.
Information items have been typically transferred between ground stations and aircraft using Very High Frequency (VHF) and High Frequency (HF) technologies, which are now gradually replaced with the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) and the Aeronautical Telecommunication Network (ATN), the latter being presently based on Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocols and deemed to evolve towards Internet Protocol (IP) suite.
Issues related to coexistence of terrestrial and satellite technologies and to line-of-sight constraints have been overcome, in most cases, assuming profile-based solutions, with primary data link allocations to different airspaces and flight phases also in view of different operational opportunities made available by communications service providers and of different technology availabilities and cost impacts.
Generally, current architectures maintain continuous communications between a ground station and an aircraft by involving a plurality of ground stations to relay signals between the originating ground station and the aircraft, as the latter proceeds along its flight route. This is a rather static approach, in which air-ground communications are routed according to pre-planned paths, involving predefined service providers and associated access points for what refers to the whole ATM value chain, including communications, navigation and surveillance.
This scenario is changing with the evolution of aeronautical communications towards 4D-trajectory-based operation (where 4D stands for four-dimensional) and performance-based operation (in this connection, reference can be made, for example, to Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) master plan). In particular, in parallel to modernized procedures for flight planning and clearance management, pilot-controller exchanges will benefit from the availability of multiple air-ground digital data links for SoL communications, including terrestrial and satellite technologies in ICAO-compliant and ITU-regulated AMS(R)S frequency bands (where, as is known, AMS(R)S stands for Aeronautical Mobile-Satellite (R) Service, (R) being the abbreviation for route flights (route)). In this respect, it is worth recalling that, according to Article 1.36 in Section IV—Radio Stations and Systems—of the ITU Radio Regulations, AMS(R)S is defined as “An aeronautical mobile-satellite service reserved for communications relating to safety and regularity of flights, primarily along national or international civil air routes”.
In this new scenario, the new ATM end-to-end operational procedures will result in the management of a dynamic context with ad-hoc performance-oriented provisioning of communications services and bearers.
Currently, known examples of technologies for aeronautical communications are provided in:                EP 2 023 685 A1, which discloses a method for routing aircraft data link messages over a plurality of communications networks; in particular, said method assigns at least one data link message routing service for an aircraft having a first message processing application based on prescribed criteria, the prescribed criteria comprising preferred networks of the plurality of communications networks; as a first preferred communications network becomes available, the method selects a first message route from the assigned routing service and transmits each of the data link messages on the first message route while the first message route satisfies the prescribed criteria; when the prescribed criteria changes over a plurality of flight phases of the aircraft, the method reassigns the at least one data link message route to continue data link message transmissions to and from the aircraft based on the latest prescribed criteria;        EP 1 995 706 A2, which discloses systems and methods for actively seeking and generating real-time, conflict-checked, operationally preferred flight trajectory revision recommendations; in particular, the system analyzes air traffic conditions based on a plurality of inputs and includes: an analysis component configured to produce at least one conflict-checked, operationally preferred flight trajectory revision for an operating vehicle, and a communications component configured to communicate the at least one conflict-checked flight trajectory revision; in one embodiment, the system interfaces with the airspace user's operations center (e.g., Airline Operations Center), to communicate the operationally preferred flight trajectory revision, allow the operator to make the decision whether to implement, and request the same from an Air Navigation Service Provider;        EP 2 109 087 A2, which discloses a method for accessing data link communications for an aircraft; in particular, the method comprises providing a pre-selected data link service provider for aircraft communications, detecting a data link service provider supplying Air Traffic Control (ATC) communication services, and determining whether the detected data link service provider is the same as the pre-selected data link service provider; if the detected data link service provider is not the same as the pre-selected data link service provider, a communication link is established with the detected data link service provider for ATC messages, while a communication link is maintained with the pre-selected data link service provider for non-ATC messages; if the detected data link service provider is the same as the pre-selected data link service provider, a communication link is maintained with the pre-selected data link service provider for both ATC messages and non-ATC messages;        EP 2 667 363 A1, which discloses a method of detecting conflicts between aircraft passing through managed airspaces, and to resolving the detected conflicts strategically; in particular, an ATC apparatus according to EP 2 667 363 A1, that is arranged to manage an airspace through which aircraft are flying, comprises processing means configured to receive aircraft intent data describing an aircraft's intended flight path, to launch a conflict detection procedure in which it computes a user-preferred trajectory for each of the aircraft based on the aircraft intent and determines whether any conflicts will arise, to launch a conflict resolution procedure in which it calculates revisions of the aircraft intent of the conflicted aircraft to remove the conflict, and to transmit to the aircraft the revised aircraft intent data;        EP 2 889 579 A1, which discloses a system and method for defining and predicting aircraft trajectories; in particular, the method comprises: acquiring input data of both aircraft performance characteristics and atmospheric data, and defining trajectory parameters to which the aircraft trajectory must be subjected; moreover, the method further comprises: defining aircraft trajectory parameters, acquiring a plurality of atmospheric forecast ensembles, calculating a predicted trajectory from each atmospheric forecast of an atmospheric forecast ensemble, said predicted trajectory having associated information regarding a certain figure of merit of the aircraft trajectory, wherein an ensemble of predicted trajectories is obtained from each atmospheric forecast ensemble, each predicted trajectory of the ensemble of predicted trajectories having an associated probability derived from the probability of each atmospheric forecast within an atmospheric forecast ensemble;        WO 2007/064733 A1, which discloses systems and methods for automatically transferring control from one ATC center that uses one ATC data link standard to another ATC center that uses a different ATC data link standard; in particular, in one embodiment, the system includes: a receiver component configured to receive at least a new ATC center designation message from an original ATC center through an active connection, an identifier component configured to determine a data link standard of a new ATC center from the message, a logon component to log the aircraft into the new ATC center; moreover, the system further includes: a connection component to establish an inactive connection with the new ATC center, a confirmation component to confirm the inactive connection, and a switch component to terminate the active connection and activate the inactive connection;        US 2002/0133294 A1, which discloses a method and apparatus to provide coordinated evasive maneuver commands to an aircraft to avoid collisions; more specifically, US 2002/0133294 A1 discloses a GPS system to determine the location of the aircraft, and a control logic to calculate evasive maneuvers, display aircraft tracking information, coordinate the evasive maneuver with an intruding aircraft, and give a synthetic voice warning and command to the pilots;        US 2006/0178141 A1, which discloses a system and method for the adaptive control of VHF communications in aircraft; in particular, in one embodiment, an adaptive communications system for an aircraft has a communications processor that accesses a communications switching model to select a preferred ground communications station; in another embodiment, a method of communication between an aircraft and a ground station includes: receiving a communications switching model, determining a flight parameter for the aircraft as the aircraft navigates along a flight route, and selecting a ground station based upon the determined flight parameter; the aircraft then communicates with the selected ground station; in still another embodiment, a method for compiling a communications switching model includes receiving signals from a ground station and measuring a signal strength; a preferred ground station is selected based upon the measured signal strength value;        US 2009/0070123 A1, which discloses a method for facilitating a financial decision for 4D navigation of a vehicle; in particular, according to US 2009/0070123 A1, navigation information are received, a current location of the vehicle is determined, data associated with at least one predetermined location of a plurality of predetermined locations is retrieved, a range of costs for said vehicle, representative of the at least one predetermined arrival time for the at least one predetermined location, is estimated, the range of costs is associated with a minimum value of the navigational information and a maximum value of the navigational information, and an indicator representative of at least one cost of the range of costs is displayed;        US 2011/0133980 A1, which discloses systems and methods for integrated ATC management; in particular, in one embodiment, a system comprises:                    a first processing system including a Future Air Navigation System (FANS) application for implementing a Controller-Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) and Aircraft Facility Notification (AFN) system,            a second processing system including an ATN application for implementing a Protected Mode CPDLC (PM-CPDLC) and Context Management (CM) system,            a third processing system implementing a Human Machine Interface (HMI) configured to provide access to a first set of pages driven by the FANS application and a second set of pages driven by the ATN application, and            an ATC manager accessed from the HMI, wherein the HMI is further configured to provide access to a third set of pages driven by the ATC manager, wherein the third set of pages selectively directs a user of the HMI to either the first set of pages or the second set of pages based on a selected ATC center;                        US 2014/0003335 A1, which relates to a stateful connectionless overlay protocol for information transfer across multiple data links and, in particular, describes a method that reduces the overall transmission time of the information to a destination by simultaneously sending different segments of the information over a plurality of data connections; more in detail, the method comprises presenting information content for transmission to a destination entity, and simultaneously sending different segments of the information over a plurality of data link connections; all segments of the information are received from the plurality of data link connections at the destination entity, and the data segments are reconstructed back into the information content at the destination entity; and        U.S. Pat. No. 7,495,602 B2, which discloses systems and methods for communication using a plurality of data link standards through a common ATC operator interface; in particular, in one embodiment, a system includes components configured to select and establish communication with an ATC center using one of a plurality of data link standards; the system further includes components configured to format at least one downlink page to only allow appropriate data inputs based on one or more functionalities of the data link standard, and encode one or more entered data inputs based on the selected data link standard and transmit the inputs to the ATC center; in a particular embodiment, the system further includes components configured to receive and display each of the decoded uplink data transmission in a text message on a corresponding uplink display page according to one or more message text conventions of the selected data link standard.        